Who's the Darklord? [5]

[Rock of the Fraternity]

The town of Golden Hills stands, predictably, at the center of rolling hills full of wheat. The ocean lies to the west, the forest and mountains to the east. Ever since the fog rose at the horizon, though, the rest of the world seems to have vanished. Quietly.

There's no more fossil fuel, so the people learned to make do with solar and horse power. Donkey and man power, too.
There are no more deliveries from the big city, so the supermarkets only carry - and compete for - local produce.
No more trips to other towns means the two high schools can only compete against each other.
So it goes, so it goes. One golden day settles into a flower-scented night, then segues into the next. People carry on, carry on, and ignore the horrid noises in the night. Always ignore the howling in the streets, the cold fingers tapping at your window to be let in, the cruel whispers from the shadows. It's fine, everything is fine.

In this town, there are two young men who don't know how they got to this point in their lives. Once, they were as brothers. Now, they have each other's blood on their hands.
Alex Morgan used to be half of a pair of fraternal twins. His sister Alexa has been dead for years now - since just after the fog rose and the rest of the world went silent. Alex used to play the piano until his fingers and arm were badly broken in high school. They didn't heal right, and people said he blew his ride to college - not that there's a college to go to anymore. Alex doesn't care. He lost his sister, who sometimes seemed to complete his soul.
Tommy Scofield had no brothers or sisters by blood; just his near-brother Alex. Tommy used to play football, until his leg was badly broken in high school, not long after Alexa Morgan was hospitalized. His father, Big Tom Scofield, said his son's ride to college was stolen from him. Tommy doesn't care; there's no college to go, and he's more wounded by the loss of Alexa, who he believes was his one true love.

Alex and Tommy, Tommy and Alex.
Once, they were as brothers. Alex would cheer at Tommy's football games; Tommy would attend Alex's piano recitals. It didn't matter that they didn't share these things, they were there for their best friend.
When Tommy fell in love with Alexa and she with him, there were people who objected. Big Tom Scofield felt his son shouldn't have a girl until he'd made a career for himself; a woman would only tie him to town. Alex and Alexa's mother, Ann-Margaret, had a few things to say about her child dating "a dumb jock with no future".
Which only added spice to their teenage love affair, to be sure. And still, Alex and Tommy were the best of friends.
Were.

Things changed, things changed. Rumours, whispers. Tommy's teammates on the high school football team complained how the school's nerds badmouthed them for being stupid all the time. Complained and complained again, especially Tommy's second-best friend Vic. Complained until the words got in his head, and he couldn't shake them loose. Until the time came that he believed.
He'd always been a loyal boy, quick to defend his friends. And weren't the team his friends, like brothers? And what was so bad about the odd swirly or wedgie, administered in a quick blitz? Nothing, right? That was just tussling. Who cared if, over the course of a quick tussle, there were bruises or minor breakages? That stuff healed, for pity's sakes! No reason to cry and scream and look at him like he was some kind of monster in the school's corridors. Surely. Surely. That sort of thing was unfair, it got him upset, especially when the one looking at him had once been as close to him as a brother...!

Tommy went too far. Alexa told him so, almost left him. He cried at her feet for her not to leave him, then cried in her arms. He meant to apologize to Alex for what he did to his arm, the future he'd stolen from him, the beautiful music he'd killed before it could be made.
But then Alexa was assaulted, broken worse than her brother, and in such ... vile ways. He never got to see Alex before ... well. Before it was too late.

Things changed, things changed.
Alex didn't like the way things changed. He still went to Tommy's games to cheer for his near-brother, his best friend, but he felt distinctly unwelcome. Tommy had new friends who looked down on Alex before he'd even opened his mouth. Especially Vic.
He caught grief for it at home as well. Ann-Margaret kept having a go at both her children, telling them to cut 'the meathead' loose, warning Alexa that one day he would do to her what was done in the end, warning Alex that he'd get hurt, that Tommy would drag him down. They didn't want to listen, didn't want to believe her. Ann-Margaret was always vicious, always selfish.
But Alex saw Tommy beating weaker, smaller kids, felt the horror of seeing his best friend change into a bully. He let it show on his face, and in a whirl of confusion and crimson pain, to the cheers of Tommy's team, Alex lost his future.
Alexa came to him in the hospital, cried, begged for him to let her fix everything. Begged for him to wait. So he waited. But Alexa never came back. Soon, she was in the hospital as well. Lingering, violated, on the threshold of death.
Ann-Margaret described in detail what had been done to her, dribbled her venom in Alex's ear until he could see only one possible perpetrator for the crime committed against his twin. And so it came to pass that the next time he saw Tommy, he was carrying a baseball bat ... and he stole Tommy's future just as his own was taken.

Alexa died, the fog rose ... and the world went quiet.

Now tell me, Fraternity of Shadows:
Who is the Darklord of this Island of Terror?

[Mistmaster]

Ann-Margaret.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Ann-Margaret.

Oh? And why?

[Joël of the FoS]

Alex is. He's the one making the bad choices, consciously going the bad way, and adding justification to explain and pardon his actions. The other guy is just a bully.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Alex is. He's the one making the bad choices, consciously going the bad way, and adding justification to explain and pardon his actions. The other guy is just a bully.

How so?

[Mistmaster]

Ann-Margaret is the Iago here whispering and rumor mongering to create a rift towards friends. She has the greater responsability.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Alex is. He's the one making the bad choices, consciously going the bad way, and adding justification to explain and pardon his actions. The other guy is just a bully.

Yeah, but he's punishing Tommy not only for hurting him, but also for hurting other kids. He's more like a hero gone too far than a straight-up villain. Of course, you could say the same about Tommy thinking he's protecting his team...
Anyway, both acts are considered 'grievous assault to a friend', which according to the table in Domains of Dread has a 4% chance to attract the notice of the dark powers. 6% if you consider it 'grievous assault to family'. Even if they had extremely bad luck, they'd still be only at the beginning of their path of corruption (if anything, Tommy could be further down it as he could be charged also with 'unprovoked assault to a good character' - 2% - multiple times) and can very much still repent. It's unlikely any of them is the darklord.

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Asking the questions that really matter:


What the heck happened to Alexa? Who killed her? It doesn't sound like Tommy did it.

[Rock of the Fraternity]

Asking the questions that really matter:


What the heck happened to Alexa? Who killed her? It doesn't sound like Tommy did it.

The killer has been named, as has his motivation for ... let us say, "removing her from the equation".

[Mistmaster]

Tom Scofield did it? So we have two Darklords, Ann-Margaret and Tom Scofield?

[TheArcaneWeirdo]

Tom Scofield did it? So we have two Darklords, Ann-Margaret and Tom Scofield?

I think Tom is the best candidate. Both brutal murder and major betrayal... Ann-Margaret could easily be just an unwitting instigator of doom. What he did had to include intentional evil.